JEDDAH: India has nipped in the bud an underhanded Iranian attempt to drive a wedge between two strategic allies, Riyadh and New Delhi.

A report carried by the Iranian state-owned Al-Alam TV news channel’s website stated that India’s Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj had asked China to “take precautions against the Saudi prince’s US-backed mission.”

The website alleged that the comment was part of an interview that Swaraj gave to the mass-circulated Hindustan Times newspaper.

To make it look genuine, the Al-Alam website ran a photoshopped screenshot of the statement with the minister’s photo under the leading Indian newspaper’s masthead.

Vikas Swarup, the official spokesperson of India’s Ministry of External Affairs, immediately responded on Twitter to the doctored statement.

“The report is completely false and baseless. The minister has given no such interview nor has she made any such comment,” he wrote on Twitter.

The minister then wrote to Hindustan Times to make it clear that she had made no such statement nor had she given any interview to the newspaper.

The newspaper ran an exhaustive clarification, stating that it had not published any article headlined “India’s External Affairs Minister: China Should Take Precautions Against Saudi Prince’s US-Backed Mission.”

“Images of the article attributing it to Hindustantimes.com are false and fabricated,” said the newspaper.

“Hindustan Times wishes to make it clear it neither sought an interview with Swaraj nor carried any comments from her of this nature,” the clarification concluded.

The minister copied the link to the clarification and tweeted: “Hindustan Times — thank you for the clarification.”

Ever since Saudi Arabia and India have drawn closer, especially after the very successful visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Riyadh in April this year, Iran and its minions have engaged in all kinds of mischief which shows their sense of unease at being isolated in the wider world.

Iranian diplomats in India and elsewhere have gone into overdrive in their efforts to tarnish the image of Saudi Arabia. However, an alert Saudi leadership and the massive good will that Saudi Arabia enjoys in India and rest of the world has put paid to the Iranian machinations.